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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

This tanjore painting depicting Goddess Durga with her oh so cute tiger, is one of favourite Indian Handicraft.I love this piece because I made it myself with a lot of help from my tutor.He used to come home everyday and teach me how to do it.I love the teak wood frame and most of all I love her vahanam.I made this specially for my MIL.She is into Lalitha Sahasranamam chanting.On Sunday she held the pooja at her home.See the pic below.This piece is close to my heart because it made my MIL happy.

So this post is going to Preethi Prabhu's lovely Giveaway. Congrats on your 101.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Its been a long time since I went to a play or a music fest,hence settled on November Fest.I chose to watch wHOOL a Korean band. wHOOL means 'empty and renew the mind' ... to dust yourself off and fill with something new'.The show was truly splendid.They use traditional Korean instruments along with the contemporary music instruments.Their rendition of our National anthem was simply the best that I have heard till date.Really loved each and every artist's performance.The flautist did a fabulous job,with his wind instrument the Piri.And so did the vocalist with his Buk(drum) and Jang-gu: Double headed Drum .Their energy was infectious.They even came down to the audience and performed.The audience loved their performance so much that we asked for an encore.They even used the conch just like in India.When they blew into it I was reminded of the Mahabharata serial.It was a solemn moment when the entire audience stood up when they played our National anthem.They traversed all genres of rock,jazz,and bollywood awesome.Language was not a barrier at all.Truly their music broke all the barriers.Do catch up whenever they play in a venue near you.Worth every moment.I watched this show on the 17th Nov.

Since I got my wisdom tooth removed.I wasn't in any position to do anything for the festival.My husband came to the rescue.He made Nel pori, Aval pori and Fried gram urundai all by himself. He did it with a dexterity of a seasoned cook.The urundai's tasted awesome.It was one of the best I have eaten so far.Thank you M2 for making our Karthigai and the weekend so sweet.My husband sure is an instinctive cook.He did everything in a jiffy.He can even make wheat halwa!!.This is going to patty's party.Please check here for detailed ingredients.

In
a separate vessel make syrup out of jaggery +ding water until it just
gets immersed. Start heating the syrup.The syrup shud become thick enuf ,
so that when you add a drop of it in a vessel of water it shud solidify
immediately.When syrup reaches this stage remove from fire.Clean puffed
flakes and take it in a large bowl.Roast coconut separately without oil
and add it to the flakes.Add cardamom powder and dry ginger powder.Add
jaggery syrup and mix for about two mins,untill the temp cools down to a
state when the hand can withstand heat.Do not cool it too much, then
the urundai will not come out properly. Grease hands with rice flour or
ghee. Make the mix into medium sized balls using hand.

Easier said than done it is sort of tough for novices. Especially when you
have to make the urundai.Thats where the black jaggery plays its part it
acts as a good binding agent. Also jaggery is very good for health its
called medicinal sugar. Its a good source of iron and minerals.Jaggery
also prevents lung lesions very beneficial for people who work in smoky
environs.Pls use organic jagerry as white commercially available jaggery
is loaded with chemicals. The method is the same for both the varieties.

Now for the step by step recipe.

1.My only contribution in the recipe.Cutting coconut into bits.

2.Cleaning the Nel pori

3.Dissolving the paghu vellam in water.Very important to buy paghu vellam

4.Filter the jaggery for impurities and put the mixture in a thick bottomed kadai.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Really glad to be informing to all my readers that, Aarohi Singh is holding an exhibition of her hand painted products in Bangalore.I simply love her desi kitsch theme.Do check out her Nimboo-Mirchi series of paintings,kettles,baltis,thalis,chairs,trunks and boxes .Wish I could visit Bangalore to pick up one of her creations. The venue and the date is printed on the image above.

Diwali at our place is really big on food.These are some of the moments that made Diwali great for us. This was at my Mil's place.Our festivities started on the 4th evening with bhaji and wheat halwa and the rest of the bakshanam pictured on top .This was followed by a simple dinner of semiya payasam,onion sambar and potato curry.Check out the collages.This was our Pre-Diwali treat!I'm sending this to the key bunch fest.

Friday, November 12, 2010

A girl cut in two! I couldn't help thinking of this French movie title, when I received this orange salt and pepper shaker as a gift.I think this was picked up in the U.S.This is going to the salt and pepper carnival happening at Scatter the batter.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Sorry health conscious people.If you want to get a nice texture of Mysore pak,you can't resist the use of ghee.You have to use ghee in the proportion of 3 cups to 1 of besan and 2 cups of sugar.If you have any health problem no other go, you have to keep away from eating the delicious Mysore Pak.

How this sweet was named

Since this sweet was prepared in the royal kitchen of Mysore Maharaja,this was the name it acquired.

Making of the barfi like Mysore Pak!

1)Heat half cup of ghee and add one cup of besan in the frying pan.(generally iron kadai is preferred).If you don't have one use you can use Calcutta frying pan or any other pan which is thick bottomed.

2) Mix the flour with out any lumps.

3) In the meantime time add 2 cups of sugar, add water to immerse the sugar.Boil till you get a two string consistency.

4) Now add the besan mixture which is mixed with ghee.

5) Keep the fire very low in sim condition.

6) You must keep remaining ghee in another vessel on the stove in a heated condition.

8) Keep stirring the mixture till you can see the mixture starts leaving the side of the vessel.The ghee will ooze out of the Mysore pak mixture.If you take a pinch of it you can roll it into a small ball.This is the correct stage where you can transfer the contents.

9)Pour the contents into a plate which is smeared with ghee.The plate should be of even surface.

10) Then you can mark the pieces into squares.Once it cools down you can store it in an airtight container.

Tip:

The end point is very important in making this sweet.You should not leave the place to attend any call.Even if you are a little careless you won't get soft consistency of the Mysore pak.

Best of luck to get smooth barfi type of Mysore pak and enjoy with family and friends.

Seriously my mom's Mysore pak was a big hit with everybody. I really loved this sweet Diwali moment.This is a tried and tested recipe.Please do try this recipe and let me know.My mom got a lot of wows from visiting family and friends.

Monday, November 8, 2010

After Diwali festivities, just wanted to head out,because our house was littered.Just decided to have an early brunch at Shree Mithai at Anna nagar.We settled for their Thali. It was a simple quick meal with rotis added in.I liked the spiced buttermilk the best.This was on Saturday.

The weather was great thanx to cyclone Jal which hit Chennai.It got a little worst in the morning on Sunday.So we spent the rest of the day at home,after cancelling movie plans .My better half started following the weather with images from satellite kalpana!He predicted the worst.He kept giving me updates.I got a little bored of Jal towards evening and we headed headed out to the Soup and Salad Cafe in Anna nagar.

I really loved the place.The interiors were bright and chirpy.The menu card had a spice meter.I haven't seen this feature anywhere else.So for a person like me who cannot stand chilly spice it was of great help.So I settled for items with spice ranking of zero.Really loved their soup and salad and sandwich(Zondich).It was refreshing,light and tasty at the same time.For the Zondich they had even nicked the packet of sauce,which I usually fidget with.Didn't go for their dessert.Maybe next time.Loved the ambience,the fun way of naming their dishes,the spice meter,the calorie meter(light,medium,celebration), and the healthy food.The security even escorted me up to the car with an umbrella.That was nice touch.Will surely go back there.

Patty,looks like I'm doing only these weekend wrap up posts!(so addictive).Anyways this is going to her wrap up 5.